Are You Alright? Premiere Night

TransWorld SKATEboarding premiered the new video entitled, Are You Alright, in Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington on November 7th and 8th. By chance, the majority of the places skated in the video just so happened to be in those two states. So, everyone who attended was in for a more personal video of sorts.

Daniel Shimizu and Danny Supa from Nike came out to skate in Portland along with Ryan Wilburn and Danger. The premiere was at The Department of Skateboarding, which offered everyone a chance to skate before and after the video. Kids were hyped before the video and even more hyped afterward because of all the free product that was given away. Everyone also had the chance to play the new Tony Hawk video game, and a few lucky kids received an autographed copy of the new Tony Hawk book. The park turned out to be a perfect spot. Over 300 people in total came out, and I’d say close to half that number skated.

The Seattle premiere was held at the Skatebarn Park the following night in the small town of Renton, just outside of Seattle. We were all a little sketched at first when we realized the park was mainly built for rollerbladers, but it was the only indoor park at the time. I have to give it up for the Seattle skateboarders, as again, close to 400 kids showed to pack the place. I talked with a few of the kids, and they said they’d normally not go there, but they were down to support skateboarding by coming to see the video. The Washington section in the video definitely got the most response as it was a place everyone was familiar with and they could appreciate the tricks that were being pulled. Afterward, the kids had a chance to skate with the moviemaker himself, Jon Holland. Jon secretly came out for the premieres, and I don’t think too many of the kids knew who he was. It’s just cool that he skated with everyone in a slippery park that you couldn’t turn frontside in. Everyone made the best of it and it really didn’t matter where we were. Everyone was just psyched on skateboarding. You got to love it (skateboarding)-it’s the best thing out there!

Are You Alright?

The video started in Los Angeles where a 36-foot RV was rented for a three-week journey to the Northwest. Along for the ride were Ryan Wilburn, Clint Peterson, Pat Duffy, Danger, Aaron “Hairball” Harrison, Donny Barley, Matt Dove, Danny Way, and many more skaters as you’ll find out. The video is narrated by an older fella who had a fitting Southern accent which kind of gave it a Dukes Of Hazard sort of feeling.

You get a good idea of what really happens on the road while watching this video. There was no set schedule and no certain place to be at anytime, just pure skating whenever and whatever. It’s never as glamorous as it seems, but it is endless fun. There’s an unexpected emergency-room visit with Danger, and Danny Way and Duffy seemed to be wrecked throughout the whole trip and even so, they still killed it! Donny Barley skated creatively throughout the whole video until he to was injured during a routine heel flip over a roof gap. Aaron Harrison got left behind at some gas station in Reno and missed out on a nice session, but he showed up later with $500 dollars that he won on a 50-cent slot machine. You just never know what’s going to happen, where you’re going to end up, or whom you’re going to run into. That’s the beauty of this video.

The RV traveled all throughout Oregon, Washington, and Idaho stopping at some of the gnarliest parks out there along with some unique random street spots. Some of the place they stopped to skate were Klamath Falls, West Lynn, Burnside, Donald, Ballard, Bainbridge, Orcas Island, Anacortes, and whatever else was in-between. It was impressive to watch the type of skating that each individual skater has excelled to. I mean, there are only a handful of guys out there who can skate these parks the wway they were made to be skated, and this video showcases these individuals and their talents. Pat Duffy is mostly known for his street-skating abilities, but holy crap! This dude skates everything. He killed it with backlips and back disasters everywhere he went. You’re in for a treat and that’s no joke!

The group even tried to enter Canaduh, but some of the guys were denied access due to some prior wrongdoings here in the U.S. The odd part was that they were told that they could enter if they paid $1000 dollars. For what reason no one seems to know?

I’d like to tell of some personal highlights of this video, but that’s just impossible. There are way too many to list. I did enjoy watching Clint Peterson skate just about everything that was offered, and that it was nice to see a good mix of people throughout this video. From some famous names to some not-so-famous names—everyone ripped. It showed that it’s not just about the money for these guys. It’s more about the skating and living for the day, not knowing if the next day will come. Taking advantage of the “now”, and dealing with it later. There were some casualties along the way, but when isn’t there? Casualties and skateboarding go hand-in-hand.

Ohiodave: What would be your favorite place you skated on this trip?

Ryan Wilburn: I’d have to say Klamath because we had the generators and lights… had a little night session going there. I haven’t been there too many times, so that was probably my favorite. All the other places I skate all the time, so it was good to skate Klamath, and to have the night session was sick. That’s probably the favorite spot on the trip for me.

Danger: Uh, shit. I guess my favorite spot on the trip had to be Orcas Island, that place is just amazing. It flows so good. There’s a full racetrack around the outside, and there’s this amazing bowl. It’s nonstop just wall-to-wall fun everywhere. Everyone’s just going crazy—Tons of kids out there just having a good time. It was fun raging with Choppy and stuff that night. Definitely Orcas Island stuck out in my mind.